Metal Elvis

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Posted By: Paul - Sat Jul 03, 2010 - Comments (6)
Category: Music

Allow Me To Make A Point

Acupuncture is the procedure of inserting needles into various points on the body, used in most cases to eliminate chronic pain. But as with most ancient medical practices, there is heavy debate as to the validity of the science. And in all my reading on the subject, I have never encountered a claim like the one being made by Pham Thi Hong of Vietnam. Ms. Hong says she can detect whether or not a man is a virgin - it is a combination of checking the man's pulse and looking for a tiny red spot behind his ear. Apparently the spot will only disappear after heterosexual intercourse, and is not affected by gay sex or masturbation. But even though I doubt Ms. Hong's methods, she has made a name for herself. While treating a young man convicted of gang rape, she discovered the spot behind his ear and was convinced he was innocent. Her extremely persuasive campaign lead to the case being re-examined and investigators determined that the original case was flawed. The man was released from prison in January. Of course this has lead to a surge of appeals from other convicted rapists for Ms. Hong to examine them and clear their name. And while many would say this is proof that her method has merit, the underlying point is that the man was released from prison because the original investigation was erroneous. It raises an interesting question, though. How many of you read this and went to see if you have a tiny red spot behind your ear?

Posted By: Nethie - Sat Jul 03, 2010 - Comments (10)
Category: Body, Health, Medicine, Science, Sexuality

Weird Science – From Whales To Sails

Sperm whales are among the biggest living things on the planet and, surprisingly for these gentle giants, once must have been among the most fearsome. Palaeontologists working in Peru have uncovered the remains of an extinct long lost relative of today’s sperm whale that had 30-40 cm long teeth in both jaws (the modern form has much smaller teeth in the lower jaw only). With jaws more closely resembling those of a killer whale than its thrust/suction feeding relative, scientists believe the newly named Leviathan melvillei was a 15 m long hunter of large prey, probably other whales. Its size, jaws and undoubted intelligence would have made this marine monster more than a match for the giant shark Megalodon with which it shared its home (Science [article], Nature [paper]).

Sperm whales are still the largest animal ever to have teeth, but today their diet consists mostly of squid – including the infamous giant squid – and therein lies a problem. Whereas most land dwelling creatures live on plant material, or some juicy meaty derivative thereof, and hence are essentially “carbon-neutral”, marine animals from penguins to whales feast upon carbon that was probably sequestered in the oceans hundreds if not thousands of years ago, or has weathered out of rocks that are millions of years old. One upshot of this is that carbon dating is notoriously inaccurate on marine organisms, what scientists call the “reservoir effect”, another is that unlike water breathers such as fish, who return this carbon to the oceans, air breathing animals like whales will release this carbon to the atmosphere as CO2 and so contribute to global warming. However in new research published by the Royal Society of London, researchers have calculated that whales have actually offset their carbon emissions with emissions of another kind. Whale poop is iron rich and comparatively liquid, hence returns the excess iron in the whale’s diet back to the oceans in a form that is readily usable by phytoplankton. The team, led by Trish Lavery of Flinders University in Australia, estimate that sperm whales are responsible for removing 200,000 more tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere annually than they actually emit (Royal Society).

But it’s not all good news for the tree-huggers for while whales might be a boon in the fight against climate change, their free-range, organic farming practices of preference are almost certainly not. In a paper published by the National Academy of Sciences, Jennifer Burney of Stanford University and her colleagues have found that intensive farming is by far the most land and carbon efficient method of agriculture. Because agricultural land use is a major contributor to global warming, increasing the yields from farmland, and thereby reducing the amount of land farmed, strongly outweighed the extra carbon emissions of the intensive farming needed to achieve this. Doing the sums on farm outputs since 1961, the team found that increased yields have produced the same as cultivating an additional area the size of Russia at 1961 levels, which would have led to the release of 590 billion more tonnes of CO2, equal to about a third of all man-made emissions since the industrial revolution (PNAS).

And modern farming may be coming to our rescue in another way, as a source of cheap batteries. Almost since Ben Franklin gave up kite-flying, kids in schools the world over have been making batteries out of apples or a potatoes. Now a trio of researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, led by Alex Goldberg, have found a way to turn these vegetable power sources from classroom curiosities into a viable product. What’s more amazing is the method they discovered to generate a tenfold increase the output of their potato power-pack, they boil the potato first. How did no-one think of this before (AIP)?

Another new idea, albeit a less welcome one, is that one should prosecute scientists for not knowing everything. At least that seems to be the approach taken by the public prosecutors of the Italian city of L’Aquilla, which last year was hit unexpectedly by an earthquake that killed over 300 people and injured 1600 more. The defendants include the head of Italy’s National Institute of Geophysics and the director of the National Earthquake Center along with four other equally prominent scientists and Bernardo De Bernardinis then deputy head of the Civil Protection Agency, who together are looking at being tried for manslaughter for not alerting the population to the imminent disaster at a meeting held one week before the quake struck. It was Bernardinis, a government official, who claimed in a press conference held immediately after the meeting that the scientists had said there was “no danger”, despite the minutes of the meeting clearly showing that at no time was the chance of a major shock ever ruled out (Nature).



More in extended >>

Posted By: Dumbfounded - Fri Jul 02, 2010 - Comments (7)
Category: Agriculture, Animals, Dinosaurs and Other Extinct Creatures, Farming, Disasters, Exercise and Fitness, Food, Government, Health, Nature, Natural Resources, Science, Psychology, Excrement

My Next Halloween Costume

Posted By: Paul - Fri Jul 02, 2010 - Comments (3)
Category: Costumes and Masks, Dinosaurs and Other Extinct Creatures

Have Sharpie, Will Draw

Need thousands of dollars worth of renovations in your home, but only have a handful of magic markers? Not a problem, if you're Charlie Kratzer. Mr. Kratzer, of Lexington, Kentucky, wanted something unique to cover the sea of endless cream-colored paint on his basement walls. He started the project mid-wall, by drawing a copy of the "Salon" by Picasso, and the idea took off. Through most of the spacious basement there is black line-drawing — around the pinball machine and the pool table and over the bathtub and toilet. You can view the entire basement artwork here, and see if you can spot Sherlock Holmes, Winston Churchill, The Walrus and the Carpenter from Alice, the Marx Brothers, and R2D2.

Posted By: Nethie - Fri Jul 02, 2010 - Comments (4)
Category: Art, Crafts, Design and Designers, Graffiti

Spittin’ Image

In one Elyria, Ohio judge's courtroom a defendant who spits on the jury can expect the above treatment. Neither the judge nor the jury were willing to give the defendant the death sentence he requested either. Perhaps because crucifixion in front of the courthouse or stoning by the victim's family are not usual forms of capital punishment...anywhere. Life in prison with no possibility of parole was the sentence handed down.

Posted By: Alex - Thu Jul 01, 2010 - Comments (4)
Category: